Fill My Little World

My Little Star

I've just been looking back over the last few things I blogged about before going awol & one of them was about Callie getting the lead role of Annie in the school production.
Well after months of rehearsals the production took place back in February & I have to say my little girl totally shone on the stage. After all 3 performances the head of drama actually called her forward on stage & said that she sang flawlessly & acted to perfection. Her solo songs were amazing & the song Maybe actually had me in tears.
They even used a real dog in the production & Callie had to control the dog using chopped ham whilst singing. Very impressive.
Her latest attempt at stardom has been getting invited to audition for the West End musical The Sound of Music. She made it through the first round but then didn't make it through the second. I am still a very proud mummy though & can't wait to see if she manages to fulfill her dreams of becoming a star.
Here's a photo of her & Bibi the dog.

Coming Through The Other Side

Wow how long has it been since I've blogged.
I've been on a total roller-coaster ride for the last 6 months. As some of you will remember we had to move out of our house whilst we had a huge amount of structural work done. We are currently still living in rented accommodation & have been since October 19th. Fingers crossed though we will be moving home in about 5 weeks.
The move in itself was stressful enough packing most of our furniture & belongings into storage but everything was made more stressful by the fact that my beloved grandad was taken ill very suddenly the day we moved & died in hospital that evening. It was honestly the most surreal experience of my life. I'd never really experienced grief before not on this scale anyway so to leave my house to go wait at the hospital leaving Ian to the move & then to return home to a totally different house 10 hours later was just like being in a dream. I guess even 5 months on it still feels like I am in limbo. Then to add to our stress 6 weeks after losing my grandad my father-in law died very suddenly 3 weeks before Christmas. It totally knocked the family for 6.
In an ideal world I would have been there for Ian & he would have been there for me but the pair of us became so wrapped up in our own grief that at times it was difficult to function.
We seem to be through the worst of it now, I have found a strength I never knew I had & although not a day goes past when I don't think of my grandad the pain has eased just a little bit. I've thrown myself into my job & from the 7th April I will become Branch Manager of the library I work in on a part time basis.
Scrapping has been at a complete standstill with my passion for my hobby just non-existent but over Easter weekend I found a little spark of that passion that enabled me to complete 3 layouts & I am itching to get more done.
Hopefully now I have made this post I will want to come on here & update my blog more regularly especially now my passion for scrapping has been re-ignited.

We Got Annie!!!

Well actually we didn't but Callie did get the role of Annie in her school production.
I am so pleased for her & very proud. For some reason because it is a school production & not a normal dancing thing she has put herself under an enormous amount of pressure. I think it is the whole peer thing & worrying what people will say.
I think the 2nd audition was a lot tougher & they had to sing 3 Annie songs. She put an awful lot of effort in over the weekend watching the film & learning most of the songs so I am really glad that all her hard work paid off. I must tell you what happened at the call back audition though. She was demoing the dance moves for the dance teacher for everyone to copy & was doing a split leap when there was a loud tearing sound. She had managed to rip both seams on her school trousers & had a gaping hole. Fair play to her though someone lent her their PE shorts & she just carried on. The teachers did say that it was the best laugh they had had in ages.lol
So we are now going to be driven mildly insane by the sounds of 'Tomorrow, tomorrow I love you tomorrow' & 'Dumb dog why are you following me' until next February. I think I may need to dig out my Ipod.lol

Why?

Ok so here is a question for you. Why is it that my kids can get up extra early on a Saturday morning without being woken yet when I try to wake them for school in the week it takes me ages?

My youngest two were up at the crack of dawn this morning. And do you know what they did to make sure I was awake? Played the Crazy Frog tune over & over. They have it as part of game they have so it was played about 10 times before I yelled "Shut Up" & they yelled back " We are trying to wake you up."
Well thank you very much, it certainly worked.

All I wanted was a little extra time in bed this morning. The week has been totally manic what with wild horses, film crews, trying to sort out the house move, looking for kitchens etc & then to top it all off yesterday had to be one of my busiest work days ever. The libary has had no phones since Thursday, we still have internet but noone can ring in or ring out. Silly me actually thought that this would make the day quieter as we wouldn't be getting any phone calls. However seeing as most of the surrounding area had lost their BT lines as well we had people coming in droves to use our computers. It turns out that someone has stolen all the cables & it could take them a week to sort it all out.

So I have already decided I am going to do next to nothing all day. I started the new Kathy Reichs yesterday & I am about 3/4 of the way through so I want to try & finish that today. And then I have loads of stuff on the TV Drive recorded & I need to get some ironing done. The girls are both out dancing & Tyler is happy playing for the moment.

Tension

I think we are heading for a rocky few days with the eldest one.
On Tuesday she auditioned for a role in the school production of Annie which will be happening next February. She didn't take any chances & made sure that she auditioned for both the role of an orphan & the role of Annie. She spent all weekend singing the song Tomorrow & brushing up on her American accent. I have never seen her so nervous, I have never seen her want something so much even more than when she was in the All England Dance finals.
So she did the audition came home telling me she didn't think it had gone that well & that there were loads of other really good people auditioning. Her confidence seems a little knocked at the moment but then today she rings me to tell me that she has made the final 3 for the role of Annie & needs to go for a call back next Monday. How am I going to be able to cope with her & her nerves for another 3 days.lol
I've had a pretty chilled out day today though. Popped over to WillowTree Crafts this morning for a bit of retail therapy. I didn't buy an awful lot just a few sheets of the Karen Russell Narratives edged papers, a Narratives transparency, some alphabet stickers & some Bazzill flowers. Then after I had paid for that little lot I couldn't resist buying a couple of sets of the Autumn Leaves swirls. Looking forward to having a play with them later.

And I have finally gotten around to scanning the layouts that I did at the August Ickenham crop so I thought I would share them with you here.

Wild Horses & Film Crews

Well we have had an eventful few days round these parts.lol

Saturday we went to take a look at the one & only house that is available to rent locally & it was ok, just ok!!! I know it is only for 6 months but I love my house & really don't want to leave it even if it is falling down around our ears. I just keep having to remind myself that it will be worth it in the end when we move back into a newly decorated house that has doors that close & windows that open & no unsightly cracks in the lounge that I can fit my hand in. We are also going to be having an extension built whilst we are out & we are dividing the girls room which is huge into 2 smaller rooms so that the kids can all have a room each. Which will be great as Callie is definitely at an age now where she craves her own room. So we have told the estate agent we would like to rent the house & we'll have to see what happens with the insurance company now.

Sunday was Ickenham crop day. I didn't even manage to finish the layout I was working on but I had a good day & was able to chill out a little. We spent time chatting about the Ickenham weekend retreat which is happening in 4 weeks & were chatting about the 60 plus photos we needed for Shimelle's album class. It was just good to get a day out of the house & spend some time on me after having such a rough week last week.

Monday well now Monday morning was surreal. I got up & went into the kids rooms to wake them for school pulled the curtains as I always do & what do you think I see just wandering past the front of our house????
3 horses!!!!! There were 2 adult horses & a baby one just trotting along the road followed by 2 policemen on foot , a police car with its lights flashing & an RSPCA van. They eventually managed to corner the horses in someones front garden & stuck 2 police cars over the drive to stop them wandering any further. Turns out they had escaped from a gypsy camp & they believe they had come down the local motorway. Lucky horses.

Then this morning they are filming an Ikea advert in the house opposite. So my road has been totally taken over by film crew & all the paraphanalia that comes along with them. It's quite fun to keep sneaking a peak out the window though to see what is going on.

Another house update

Ian has spent the last the last 2 weeks phoning everyone & anyone who he could speak to regarding the house.
Tuesday he finally phoned the insurers direct & was told that in all probability the house would not be underpinned but it could take up to 5 weeks for a decision to be made. So just as I am getting my head around the fact we are staying in the house & that I am going to need to clean it from top to bottom as we are not moving out we get another phonecall. This time it is from the loss adjuster who has been dealing with our case & would you believe it the insurers have now given us the green light for the underpinning with the contractors starting in approx 6 weeks. Unbelievable!!!!
So we now are frantically trying to find a house to rent that will allow kids(yes kids!!) & pets. And guess what there is only currently one house in the area suitable & we are viewing that on Saturday so fingers crossed we get it but everything crossed that it is a nice house. I know it is only for 6 months but it needs to be reasonable. The best thing about this house is that it is a 2 minute walk from our current house & puts Callie practically on her schools doorstep.
The next 6 weeks or so are going to be total bedlam in this house.

House Update!!

Well we should have been moving out of the house in the next 6-8 weeks to have it underpinned but everything is all up in the air now & I am absolutely fuming hence I haven't been on my blog for the last week or so.
Just needed to take a total timeout to get my head around everything. I think I have said on here before that we moved into this house in September 2002 so almost 5 years ago & in the Summer of the following year we noticed big cracks appearing in the house so contacted our insurace company. Anyway after months & months of monitoring & investigation it was decided that the cause was definitely subsidence due to the big oak tree that we have in our front garden. Next door are also suffering due to our tree plus an oak tree in their other neighbours garden. So back in May 2005 we applied for the tree to be removed & the council just refused to make a decision. This went on & on for ages with legal action being threatened but still no decision was made.
Last December we were told that our insurance company were going to go ahead & underpin without the tree being removed but next doors insurance company were still being funny about it all.
Back in June we finally had the contractors in to quote on the work that needed doing & then sat back waiting for the insurance company to decide which contractor to go with. We were told that we were looking at the a moving out date of sometime in late September/early October. Anyway last Friday Ian called me at work to say everything was sorted, the approved contractors wanted to start work in approx 8 weeks & that we needed to start looking for somewhere to rent.
I was all set to head up to the estate agents in my lunch break but half an hour later Ian rang me to say that the council had finally after nearly 2 1/2 years decided to grant permission for the removal of the oak tree in our front garden. 2 1/2 years. Argh!!!!!!!! There are loads of other ins & outs which are really frustrating but now we don't have a clue what is happening. Noone seems to have any answers for us. 1 minute we are being told that we won't be underpinned & that we will just have the house repaired & that for this we can stay in the house. The whole of the ground floor needs relevelling for Fs sake. And then someone else is telling us that we will probably still be underpinned with the start date being 6-8 weeks. So we are living in total limbo not knowing whether we should pack the house & fins somewhere else to live or whether we need to wait another year for the tree to be removed & then see what happens to the ground.
This has been going on for the last 4 years & quite frankly I have now had enough.

Sorry for the rant but it feels so much better getting that all off my chest.
Normal blog service will be resumed soon.

Holiday Photos Part 2

Here are a few more holiday shots from last week

Another favourite activity is mini golf & the little 2 are getting surprisingly good at it.

The estate is right by the River Thames & you can normally hire out row boats but the current was too fast so we weren't able to do that this time. The kids were very amused to see the cows had wandered down to drink from the river, a sight we had never seen before.

And for the first time ever I actually managed to get a few decent shots of all 3 of the kids together. Of course there were plenty where they were being silly with lots of face pulling but these are some of my favourites.

There are also quite a few shots of them on their own and these are the best of the bunch.

Holiday Photos

Ok so holiday makes it sound like 2 weeks in the Carribean when in reality it was 3 days away & only 20 minutes from home but it was a fantastic break & we had beautiful sunshine the whole time.

All last week I kept meaning to upload some photos & finally this evening I have the time to sit and do it.

This is the main house which is actually under renovation at the moment so noone can stay in it but around the grounds there are 4 or 5 other large houses which are done out like hotels & we had gorgeous rooms.

The grounds are fabulous & I must admit this year is the best I have seen them look. The borders were full of gorgeous flowers & some really magnificent sunflowers.


We didn't venture out of the grounds the entire time we were there as when the sun is shining there is just so much to do. The kids spent a couple of hours each afternoon in the open air swimming pool. Abbie was swimming for the first time without armbands, Tyler went in the big pool for the first time not hanging off of Ian or me & Callie spent the time perfecting her underwater handstands which wasn't good for her eyes but she enjoyed herself.

We went for a long walk around the grounds doing the nature trail which is like a treasure hunt & you have to follow the clues to find these special machines that when you place your trail card in give you an embossed picture. I love the grounds so much but my favourite part are the water gardens & I spent ages sitting on a bench watching the kids wandering around taking everything in.